Cheap Cool Quiet Computer (for mythtv)[views:2920][posts:58]______________________________________ [May 9,2007 11:18am - the_reverend ""] right now I have a AMD 1900+ with 5 case fans and it's noisey as hell. Plus it always is running so hot and pull 188watts! I already have the tunercard, and a all-in-wonder card and hard drives up the ass (thank you very much slickdeals). now I'm looking for a quiet, cool, cheap computer to rebuild into and hook to my tv (it's got a DVI connector). Any ideas? I'm looking to spend as close to $100 as possible. It just needs room for an AGP and a PCI card (or two) |
| _________________________________ [May 9,2007 11:31am - sxealex ""] just got to microcenter... they have cases for like 20 bucks and like 50 dollar liquid cooling things. |
| _________________________________ [May 9,2007 11:32am - sxealex ""] *go to |
| ______________________________________ [May 9,2007 11:34am - the_reverend ""] I would need to cool off the cpu, hard drives, ram, and probably the ati card. I think that a new computer that is lower power (like a pentium m) wouldn't waste as much energy. this thing does 188 watts with just 1 hard drive in it. |
| ________________________________ [May 9,2007 3:56pm - sxealex ""] oh i c. ur gay. i dunno about 100 but i got a 3.3 ghz celeron ::yuck:: Dual core with monitor and printer for 180 at best buy. it only has pci express tho no agp. so i dunno where that puts you. i also found the identical case in the trash from that computer with mobo. but it has a single celeron and it s2.6 ghz. and i havent tried it out. ur welcome to that if u want it. i also have a fully functioning dell with p4. i think its 1.8 ghz? and i think THAT has AGP. I could probably give u that for like 70 bucks. i dunno how much less powerhungry that would be tho. prob not worth it. |
| _________________________________________________ [May 9,2007 5:48pm - ArrowHead neverloggedin ""] How cool are you looking to go? Right now I'm running an apevia case that came with a built-in fan speed control and 2 80mm fans that was less than $100. Between that, the 2 fans in my power supply, and a big assed fan on the CPU, I run around 35 degrees celcius. If your fans are really noisy, try going into your BIOS and changing to the smart fan option. With it turned off, my box sounded like a jet engine. With it enabled, I still maintain the same temp, but it's VERY quiet. If that doesn't help, try new fans that are quieter, or add a fan speed controller. Tiger Direct's case/cpu fan reviews are pretty honest about how loud they are. |
| _________________________________________________ [May 9,2007 5:51pm - ArrowHead neverloggedin ""] P.S. - why are you bitching about 180 Watts? Computers suck a lot of power, they're not exactly energy star efficient. That CPU you have alone pulls somewhere between 80-100 watts. Here's a good chart of wattage ratings for varying computer components. If you do the math, you're doing pretty well only using 180 Watts. javascript:TG_openBRWindow('http://www.tigerdirect.com/static/html/pcbuildingtips.html','CloseUp','toolbar=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=yes,width=650,height=575') |
| _________________________________________________ [May 9,2007 5:52pm - ArrowHead neverloggedin ""] Sorry, bad link http://www.tigerdirect.com/static/html/pcbuildingtips.html |
| ______________________________________ [May 12,2007 3:12pm - the_reverend ""] the 188 watts is basically just this AMD chip sucking lots of power and it's running near meltdown temps. when it's running, the thing is like 90+ F in the case and when I query the CPU temps, it's like 72-86 Celsius!!! the MB goes into panick usually around 82 and I think it won't boot if it's 76+. Alex, I'm going to see what microcenter has. I think they are in cambridge, right? my old G4 does 80watts with 2 hard drives and C2D will throttle back.. for about $250, I could get an ok C2D with RAM. |
| ______________________________________ [May 12,2007 3:13pm - the_reverend ""] Store Address 730 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02139 Phone Numbers General Information (617) 234-6400 _ Business Services (617) 234-6400 _ Job Applications (617) 234-6400 Store Hours Mon - Sat 10 to 9 Sun 11 to 6 |
| ______________________________________ [May 12,2007 5:13pm - the_reverend ""] this place is like santa's workshop! |
| ______________________________________ [May 13,2007 2:51pm - the_reverend ""] ok, after microcenter fucked up a million times and tried charging me $20 too much for the case I wanted, I went on line and got it for $10 less PLUS a power supply. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811144160 I also got a new quieter/better cooling fan http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118112 I'm hoping that there is just a faint fan noise from under the bed now and that the DVD tray will pop out under the lip of the bed. I figured why get a new PC when I can just re-use what I have, right? now to just get one of the remotes and wifi working. |
| _________________________________________________________ [May 13,2007 10:08pm - ArrowHead is logged in... NOT ""] Apevia makes really nice cases. I was very impressed with mine, I thought it was even better than it looked online. Only think with those little media cases is that fitting the mobo can be a bitch and a half sometimes. Also, make sure theres room in there for all your harddrives, cards, etc... Apevia is pretty shitty about listing all the slots the case has, but don't mention things like losing access to drive bays, etc... when you add cards or a bigger power supply (due to a tight fit inside.) With the fan, buy some nice thermal grease instead of the stuff that comes in the package. I bought some copper thermal grease from ultra for around $5, and it definately made a big difference in CPU temp. Also, make sure to set your fan thresholds in your bios, or that fan will just run at full speed all the time, which will make a bit of noise. |
| _______________________________________ [May 13,2007 10:43pm - the_reverend ""] it only has 2x3.5 and 2x5 1/4. I'm just putting 2 hard drives in it anyhow and one dvd-rw. any other drives will be usb. |
| ________________________________________________________ [May 14,2007 1:43pm - ArrowHead is logged in... NOT ""] What is the T.V. card that you are using? I was thinking about trying one in my old box, but I don't know shit about them. |
| ______________________________________ [May 14,2007 1:56pm - the_reverend ""] the PVR-150 happgauge or something like that. the PVR-150 is the best/cheapest bang for the buck. fully supported in mythtv, cheapest out of the PVR-X50 line and it does on-card encoding. |
| _________________________________ [May 14,2007 2:10pm - sxealex ""] that fan looks sick |
| _________________________________ [May 14,2007 2:13pm - sxealex ""] if u can get a slightly more powerful and equally quiet fan u can put it at the back of the case if there is opening. that one u got replaces the heatsink right? |
| ______________________________________ [May 14,2007 2:23pm - the_reverend ""] look at the pictures of the case, there is a 120mm quiet fan. there is also an intake fan or 2. |
| ________________________________________________________ [May 14,2007 2:34pm - ArrowHead is logged in... NOT ""] the_reverend said:look at the pictures of the case, there is a 120mm quiet fan. there is also an intake fan or 2. The fans that apevia puts in their cases aren't all that quiet. The ones that came with mine make a bit of noise, but only when I'm gaming and have the fan speed control maxxed. However, in these situations, they're still not nearly as loud as the fan on my video card. I would definitely recommend adding the intake fans if you've got the room. 3 Fans at half speed will cool as much as the one 120 at full, but with less noise. |
| _________________________________ [May 14,2007 2:48pm - sxealex ""] i read some place that having more intake fans and less exaust fans screws up anywind tunnel effect. ur better off having no intake fan and just an exaust i believe. btw does that fan have a peltier cooler on it? they are like 13 bucks u can stick one inbetween. |
| ______________________________________ [May 14,2007 3:06pm - the_reverend ""] I don't know what a peltier cooler is. When you have more intake fans, you create positive pressure. This is one way to keep dust out of your system. If the 120mm fan is too loud, I'll just pay for a lower dB fan http://www.apevia.com/product.php?pid=175 doesn't list the fan noise. |
| ______________________________________ [May 14,2007 3:13pm - the_reverend ""] also, the CPU cooler I got was made for an AMD 3400+. I hope it works well for this 1900+ |
| _________________________________ [May 14,2007 3:13pm - sxealex ""] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier_cooler http://www.tellurex.com/cthermo.html they are under 10 bucks on ebay. it just pulls the heat away from one side of the cooler to the other side. its just 2 type of metal and negative current on one and positive on the other. the wiki explains better i forget exactly how it works. alot of heatsinks have them built in i believe. maybe not i dunno? they should. |
| _________________________________ [May 14,2007 3:14pm - sxealex ""] ps they are the peltier junctions are silent. |
| _________________________________ [May 14,2007 3:16pm - sxealex ""] er * the peltier junctions are silent |
| ________________________________________________________ [May 14,2007 4:06pm - ArrowHead is logged in... NOT ""] A little off topic, but I'm trying to take some pictures of my system with my digital camera. However, the blue UV lights are making everything come out all shitty and blurred. If I use a flash, you can't see the lights, but if I just use the lighting of the computer the blue lights are overpowering and make the rest of the case look blurred. I figure the Rev would have a good tip on how to do this. |
| _________________________________ [May 14,2007 5:41pm - sxealex ""] use night vision? |
| _______________________________________ [May 17,2007 11:51am - the_reverend ""] use flash and a longer exposure. I just got my case... I must have looked up the wrong mb size online cause my mb doesn't fit in the case. jeepers... |
| _______________________________________ [May 17,2007 12:43pm - the_reverend ""] I'm just going to pack it in there... if it works and run it. then I guess get a new MB/CPU/RAM... SUCKS@ |
| ________________________________________________________ [May 17,2007 1:02pm - ArrowHead is logged in... NOT ""] the_reverend said:I'm just going to pack it in there... if it works and run it. then I guess get a new MB/CPU/RAM... SUCKS@ Can't you return the case? |
| ______________________________________ [May 17,2007 1:10pm - the_reverend ""] yeah, but then I lose the shipping. Plus, this is the perfect case. I guess I got a choice. 1) buy a MB that fits. looks to be about $60, but then I can use 2 of my 3 RAM DIMMS 2) get a new C2D mb for $60 and then a C2D processor for $100-$130 and then RAM for $40-80 and throw away the $80 worth of RAM I bought a few months ago for this... and the CPU fan that I just bought/put on. I guess I could try to egay the RAM and some parts. I've never sold anything on ebay before. |
| ______________________________________ [May 17,2007 1:13pm - the_reverend ""] though if I get the new cpu/mb/ram, it would be faster, have on-board gig, and on-board SATA |
| ________________________________ [May 17,2007 1:20pm - denim ""] More exhaust CFM (or fans, if all are the same size) will fuck your airflow up by reducing air pressure inside the case. You want more blowing in than out, or you get weird airflow patterns that will leave you with hot spots. That's why ETS switched from pull to push going from 9000 chassis to 6000 chassis. The best MythTV frontend for silence is one of the mini-ATX motherboards with integrated video and hardware decoder... http://www.mini-box.com/VIA-EPIA-EX10000EG?sc=8&category=99 Fanless CPU == quiet, integrated decoder so even though CPU is slow you can do it. That's what they were designed for. |
| ______________________________________ [May 17,2007 1:36pm - the_reverend ""] yeah, but I already have a tuner card with encoding on it and a really nice 256MB (or 512MB) video card with DVI. So I would want to use those. |
| ________________________________ [May 17,2007 1:44pm - zyklon ""] Right now Dell has a very good deal for $599 1 gb of ram 260 sata hard drive dual core DVD R W |
| ______________________________________ [May 17,2007 1:46pm - the_reverend ""] I'm just going to buy the parts since I already have the case and everything else. wish I didn't buy the RAM a while ago or the cpu fan. oh well. |
| ____________________ [May 17,2007 3:42pm - i <3 numetal ""] denim said:More exhaust CFM (or fans, if all are the same size) will fuck your airflow up by reducing air pressure inside the case. You want more blowing in than out, or you get weird airflow patterns that will leave you with hot spots. That's why ETS switched from pull to push going from 9000 chassis to 6000 chassis. im not sure this is true. we are not trying to get more air outside the computer .. rather more air next to the cpu. if u have more pressure cmoing in i think the air will stick to the edges of the case instead of a wind tunnel right on the cpu. if the exaust fan needs more air it will be sucked in on its own unless the pressure is stronger than the sides of the case haha. |
| ____________________ [May 17,2007 3:42pm - i <3 numetal ""] im gonna stab rowan. |
| _________________________________ [May 17,2007 3:45pm - sxealex ""] ps rev did u check out the pelitier junctions |
| _____________________________________ [May 17,2007 3:48pm - Mike_Giallo ""] NERDS! |
| ______________________________________ [May 17,2007 3:49pm - the_reverend ""] i <3 numetal: I think denim's engineering degree would support his knowledge. alex: urgayno |
| ____________________________________ [May 17,2007 3:51pm - RichHorror ""] [img] |
| _________________________________ [May 17,2007 3:56pm - sxealex ""] "Airflow After you have a good case picked out, the next decision for you to make will be between positive and negative pressure. What I mean by this is that there are different benefits and drawbacks to be had depending on whether there is more airflow into a case or more airflow out of a case. With a positive-pressure system (and filtered fans), the inside of your case will stay cleaner because the only air entering the case will be filtered and the extra air that isn’t exhausted by the exhaust fans will blow out through cracks and vents in the case. With a negative pressure system, the vacuum inside the case will pull dirty air in through those same cracks and vents. A negative pressure design, however, will result in better cooling because it keeps a constant stream of air moving through the case at all times. The choice is yours, but for this article, since I am focusing on cooling, I will explain a negative-pressure system." |
| _________________________________ [May 17,2007 3:56pm - sxealex ""] clean or cool... up to you. |
| _________________________________ [May 17,2007 3:59pm - sxealex ""] and get a fucking cooler they are cheaper than fans... itll kick on less. |
| _________________________________________________________ [May 17,2007 11:52pm - ArrowHead is logged in... NOT ""] sxealex said:clean or cool... up to you. Not even a choice, man. $9 at Staples will get you a can of compressed air bigger than my grandmothers penis. One squirt a week will keep your case a lot cleaner than those fans ever would. Cooling is the whole point. I spent 5 years filling my case with smoke, resin, cat hair, and other bullshit. The last year I never bothered putting the cover back on, so I ran it wide open. It was FILTHY, but it still ran fine for years. However, take the fan off your CPU and watch how long it would last. +DISCLAIMER+ - I in no way am endorsing leaving your case wide open, or fishbowling it. |
| _______________________________________ [May 17,2007 11:55pm - the_reverend ""] you get something like .5 sec to 3 seconds if you take your heatsink off. I once lift my finger tip on a AMD left on for 5 seconds. |
| ___________________________________ [May 18,2007 12:36am - DeRtOxIa ""] somewhere out there are videos of people pulling the heatsinks after disabling thermal shutdown and their processors literally exploding. I live right next to a cement plant so the insides of my computers are fucking filthy. I just blow em out once or twice a year. I have had problems a few times where dust completely clogged the cpu heatsink and all the vents. But i always have my computers set to shut down at the lowest temperature just in case. Also...last week or so, when we first had that humid heat wave, i was doing some divx encoding and my comp kept shutting down. The processor would spike and it would go from 40 degress up to 60 in not even a few minutes. I just opened up the case and pointed a boxfan right in. I should probably mention that i run a fanless system. My cpu cooler is pure copper heatpipes with a couple hundred aluminum fins and my power supply is all heatpipes too. I just have one 120mm exhaust fan. My computer is completely silent but it's more annoying actually. Fans really do drown out a ton of noises that you dont want to hear. CPU's make a rather annoying audible high pitch whinning sound that is usually completely drowned out by a fan. At night with eveyrthing off in my room i can hear every little click of my hard drive and i can hear when the processor ramps up to run a virus scan or something. |
| _________________________________________________________ [May 18,2007 12:48am - ArrowHead is logged in... NOT ""] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOmMAasqto They test two AMD's and two Intels with and without the sinks/fans. This video is fucking hilarious. One of the AMD's hits almost 700 degrees farenheit. |
| ______________________________________ [May 18,2007 1:58am - the_reverend ""] yeah, I remember when that came out. I also saw them do it with one that blew out of it's socket. |
| __________________________________ [May 18,2007 10:36am - sxealex ""] ArrowHead is logged in... NOT said:sxealex said:clean or cool... up to you. Not even a choice, man. $9 at Staples will get you a can of compressed air bigger than my grandmothers penis. One squirt a week will keep your case a lot cleaner than those fans ever would. I completely agree that was kinda my point |
| __________________________________ [May 18,2007 10:43am - sxealex ""] i use an air compressor with a long cord from my garage. if u do this keep the comp off cuz on a humid day that shit will spatter water sometimes. |
| _______________________________________ [May 18,2007 10:49am - the_reverend ""] air compressors also spit oil. |
| __________________________________ [May 18,2007 12:11pm - sxealex ""] well its been fine up till now. i dunno as long as i empty it after every use. |
| ______________________________________ [May 18,2007 2:21pm - the_reverend ""] you just aren't seeing it. that's why you can't use them for cleaning out cameras. if you blow it on your hand for a few seconds, you can feel it. the "water" is probably mixed with oil too how does this MB/CPU combo look? http://www.portatech.com/catalog/viewitem.asp?ID=25355&O=26120 |
| ______________________________________ [May 18,2007 2:22pm - the_reverend ""] I found 2x1GB 800MHZ ram for $60. |
| _________________________________ [May 18,2007 2:51pm - sxealex ""] they gotta make some sorta attachment for air lines that filter out liquid. im sure big comp shops dont use the canned shit |
| __________________________________ [May 18,2007 3:20pm - DeRtOxIa ""] sxealex said:they gotta make some sorta attachment for air lines that filter out liquid. im sure big comp shops dont use the canned shit i'm a staples easytech and we use canned air mostly. but we also have a datavac that can blow too. it's a pretty weak vacuum but it's static free. |